


Devil-May-Care-A-Lot

by orphan_account



Series: Puzzles [1]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ella Lopez is best nerdy friend, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Feels, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Male-Female Friendship, Non-Graphic Violence, Post S3, Post-Episode: s03e24 A Devil of My Word, S Y M B O L I S M, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Wholesome Friendship, Wingfic, small bit of devil puns, wing fic sort of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 05:52:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20887175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After last episode of s3, Chloe has left, Dan is still pissed, Ammendiel has gone back to heaven, and Lucifer is left alone to deal with the sting of his heart and wings.Except... he's not alone for long.





	Devil-May-Care-A-Lot

“Bless you,” came a random voice as Lucifer sneezed in his search around the precinct for a particular head of blond hair.

“No thank you,” said Lucifer, voice lacking its usual charm as he strolled into the precinct. “though I do appreciate the sentiment.”

He looked like hell; pun intended. Dark bags were underlining his normally bright brown eyes, his all-encompassing devil-may-care (again pun intended) demeanor faded into nothing, slouched posture speaking volumes. The expensive Prada suit that was probably custom-tailored was wrinkled and folded, he hadn’t even bothered to tuck a handkerchief into the breast pocket.

To put it simply, he looked like shit.

Normally, Chloe would have rolled her eyes and Lucifer’s _Luciferness,_ handing him a case file in a worthless attempt to coax him into actually filing out some paperwork this time. 

But _now_…

Well, _now_ the detective’s desk sat empty, a layer of dust un-seeable to any human eye but standing out in high definition to Lucifer’s heightened senses. All he could hear was the police precinct’s daily chatter, white noise to his ears as he wished, begged silently for Chloe’s laughter and judging tone to fill his ears. 

He squeezed his eyes tightly as flashes of last week burned in his mind, his sore wings twitching reflectively from where they were tucked away as phantom pains from bullets raining down on him, clutching Chloe to his chest tightly. He had been screaming but he couldn’t hear it, couldn’t feel anything but burning fiery pain and the sickening twist of cold knives in his heart as he looked at what he believed at the time to be Chloe, dead or dying in his arms. And oh, he could take it, he could take the pain of the bullets, of lead sliding its way through feathers and flesh, he was the ex-king of hell for dad’s sake!! Hell had been way worse.

But the stabbing, icy cold feeling he felt at seeing Cain pull the trigger, having the detective fall into his embrace, limp.

The ice was so, _so_ much worse than the fire.

And he had felt the sickening, lightheadedness of _satisfaction_ when he’d finally plunged that hell dagger into Cain’s chest, the adrenaline rush it gave him making him forget about the pain in his wings. _This is karma,_ he thought, grinning like a maniac as he saw Cain’s eyes turn glassy. He felt a new fire, a powerful one that he thrived in, Satan in his element.

A fire that was quickly doused with icy dread that clawed at his soul when the detective stumbled down those steps, the temperature turning colder and colder with every word she spoke. He shivered as she stepped back, his heart burning from ice instead of flame as he recognized the fear in her eyes.

He had felt his leathery skin, gasping as is hand met the demonic exterior of his face. Still. He _still_ felt like his skin was thicker than normal. He swore he saw more red than normal on his arms and cheeks, it haunted him sometimes, his conscious playing tricks on him.

He flinched as a hand clapped on his shoulder, quickly turning to face Detective Espinoza. Detective _Douche_. The man scowled, lines on his face suggesting he’d been wearing the scowl for a while today. 

“She’s not here, still on vacation, remember?” Dan growled. _Ah_ thought Lucifer, Dan was still mad at him for the whole Charlotte Richards fiasco.

_They should be DISGUSTED with you_, said his traitorous thoughts, _disgusted at you for the monster you are._

“I honestly don’t know how you managed to piss her off this much,” Dan continued smiling grimly, “but it must have been pretty bad if she’s the one that ran away this time. Good for her too,” Dan slid his hand off Lucifer’s shoulder, stepping back a bit, “she doesn’t deserve someone like you.”

Lucifer said nothing as he looked down to his scuffed, once shiny shoes. It was true, wasn’t it? She deserved someone that, for starters, wasn’t _evil._ Someone who wouldn’t terrify her, make _her run away_ as Espinoza had so clearly highlighted. He fiddled with his cufflinks, trying to distract himself from the wave of thoughts threatening to drown him.

“Nothing to say?” Dan sneered, a little surprised. But then again, he was always surprised by Lucifer and the tricks he pulled. More like appalled actually.

Lucifer stayed silent, playing with the shiny cufflinks of his suit, looking down, an unreadable expression on his face. _Ok then…,_ thought Dan, slowly shying away from the edgier-than-normal lucifer to get a coffee.

~

Ella Lopez was rushing out of her lab, a determined expression on her face as she made her way to the mopey club owner. She was having none of this kicked puppy look on her friend’s face! And she had watched the whole talk with Dan from her lab windows and decided she’d be having a stern talk with Espinoza after she was done comforting Lucifer.

Lucifer jumped a little as Ella hugged him from behind, his face contorting into pain until he schooled his expression and smiled, if a little sadly, at Ella. “Miss Lopez,” he made to step back, “I was just about to head back to Lux-”

“Oh no you _don’t _mister!” she stated, grabbing his wrist, “you are _not _weaseling your way out of this,”

“Uh…” Lucifer looked down at her, confusion written on his face, “Pardon me?”

“First off, no offense but you look _terrible,_” she gestured to Lucifer’s clothes and mussed up hair, “Second off, _I_ am going to _murder_ Dan when I find him, _and_ get away with it, seeing as I work in Forensics…” she quickly backtracked at Lucifer’s wide eyes, “Joking! I’m _joking!_ Jeez…But _seriously_, you looked so sad already! Why the _fuck_ would he even say something like that?”

Lucifer huffed, a small smile appearing on his face, “Well, he _does_ have a right to be angry, what with Charlotte.”

“But he shouldn’t take it out on _you!_” Ella insisted, gesturing uselessly with her arms, “You don’t deserve that,”

He looked down, laughing darkly, “Who are you to decide what I deserve, Miss Lopez?” He sucked in a breath, shuffling back from her, “That’s supposed to my job, isn’t it? Deciding what others deserve,”

“Luce…” Ella said, despair coloring her tone. 

She took his wrists in hers, noticing the way he jumped and hyper-focused on the point of contact, “Look,” she started, swallowing and looking up at her friend, who wasn’t meeting her eyes, “I _know_ you Lucifer-”

He cut her off, “No you _don’t,_” he spoke desperately, pleading for her to understand and tightening his grip on her hands, “You don’t know who I am-who I _truly _am…” he met her eyes, and Ella’s heart felt like it would shatter right then and there and the pure look of _fear_ and _sorrow_ reflecting off Lucifer’s eyes, “And if you did…you’d run away.”

_That fucking therapist better be doing what he’s paying her for, _Ella thought numbly.

Ella made to argue, but closed her mouth, looking around and then back at the weary man in front of her, “I _disagree_, but let’s not talk about this here.” She took his hand, pulling him despite his objections to the parking lot.

“Where are we going?” Lucifer asked as he slid into the shotgun seat, vaguely nervous as he looked to Ella.

Ella just smirked, hopping into the driver’s seat beside him, “My house, because _you_” she pointed an accusing finger at Lucifer, “need some _serious_ comfort. Of the Lopez brand, of course.”

Lucifer sputtered out in indignation, “What about-wha-don’t you have to work today?!”

“Yeah,” Ella considered the problem, then turned the key in the ignition, sending a rumble through the car as she shrugged, “I guess I’ll just call in, say I had something important come up and needed a day off.”

Then, before Lucifer could offer a token of protest, she sped off onto the streets of LA.

~

“Welcome to _La_ _Casa de Lopez!_” Ella announced grandly, opening the door with a flourish and a big grin, “We hope you enjoy your stay!”

Lucifer stepped through the threshold, looking around pensively. The whole house had a welcoming aesthetic to it, the comfy plush couch with its throw-on blankets and incredibly fluffy pillows making you feel drowsy just from looking. Lucifer settled on the couch, not relaxing as much as Ella had hoped as he gazed around at the large flat screen tv and bobblehead figurines on the shelves, along with some books and various other merch from different fandoms, his gaze lingering on a poster with a science pun about electrons on it.

“Nice place,” he mumbled, resting his head on his hands, like a sulky, edgy teen.

Ella, of course, was having none of this emo, depressed version of her friend.

“Hey,” She sat next to him, gaze gentle as she took a breath to start her rant, “Look, I know something went down between you and Chloe…” lucifer nodded, or rather, tilted his head down an inch and then raised it again, “and I don’t know what happened with you two, but regardless of what you did or how she reacted, you’re not _evil_ or _hellish_ like I know you think you are.”

Lucifer scoffed, and Ella pressed on, “I know you think you are but you’re not, you make deals and help people all the time! And Decker’s daughter loves hanging out with you, and so do I.”

“But I’m the devil, Ella,” Lucifer looked at her with those sad eyes, as if he could actually _be_ an immortal fallen angel.

“Stop with the method acting for a sec man, you gotta focus on yourself right now,” he shook his head, opening his mouth to object, and Ella gripped his shoulders, turning him to face her now deadly serious expression, “and if you really are _the devil,_ ya know, _el diablo _himself as you _say_ you are, then prove it.”

And the ex-king of hell, in a moment of weakness, with the absence of Chloe Decker weighing down on him like an avalanche of slush weighing down on his soul. With everything that had happened in the past week, with the pain of his aching wings that were still healing from being pumped with lead and his less than ideal picking out of the bullets, he thought _what the hell, it can’t get worse, can it?_

~

Ok, so Ella might have not been prepared to deal with her faith being confirmed completely by the devil revealing himself right in front of her.

And she _might_ have not handled it as well as she should have.

The whole burned face thing, his chocolate eyes turning into embers, made her jump back a little, shuffling back into the other side of the couch. But she was only scared for a little before she was filled with white-hot fucking _rage._

Why? Because, working with detectives and in forensics, she could put two and two together pretty easily, and now she knew _exactly_ why Chloe was on her ‘vacation’.

Chloe had just ditched him! Ditched him for how he looked and how society perceived him, deciding to believe other people’s stories, who’d never even met him in person. She decided to just overlook every little thing Lucifer’d done for her and her daughter and run away.

Lucifer’s soft voice brought her back to reality, “Ella…” he had curled up, away from her, an expression much like resignation on his now-human face as he looked away, “It’s okay if you’re afraid of me now, I’d understand-“

He was interrupted by the forensic scientist tackling him in a bear hug, “I’m not afraid of you, you idiot, you’re my friend.”

And Lucifer, pretty much in a catatonic state of shock from Ella _going towards him_ against all logic after what he’d shone her, hugging him after he’d shone her the truth, the evidence of a monstrosity living on Earth and bearing the name Morningstar, numbly hugged back.

Ella knew this hug wouldn’t fix everything, she had a million questions and was probably gonna need a hell of a lot of alcohol to deal with being friends with a (possibly several?) supernatural immortal being. She also knew that Lucifer wasn’t gonna be fixed by this one hug; being told you’re a monster again and again _and_ the fact that he’d fallen all the way from heaven _and_ all those bullet shells and feathers coated in blood at the crime scene-

Ella slammed the break on her thoughts, _let’s not go that far yet, yeah?_

But still, this one hug wouldn’t fix all their problems, it wasn’t even close to resolving the shitstorm.

But it was a step in the right direction.

And this time, the fire that thawed the numb iciness in Lucifer’s heart wasn’t painful or fierce, it was warm. 

It felt like _hope._


End file.
